MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester Monarchs opened up a weekend series with the Norfolk Admirals at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday night. When the final buzzer sounded, it was the host Monarchs who came out victorious.
The Admirals took it to the Monarchs early and forced goalie Michael Houser to come up with some of his bigger saves early into theopening frame. As the period wore on, the Monarchs started to pick up a  little bit of momentum but the Admirals struck right back and took all the momentum with them. The Monarchs weathered the Admirals push back late into the frame and Houser continued to stand tall. The period ended with the score tied at zero and the shots 21-11 in favor of the Admirals.
The Monarchs came back out for the second looking to build off of the limited success they had in the first. Immediately the Monarchs looked like a different team, starting to turn the tables on the Admirals and dominating early. Meanwhile, the Admirals could only muster perimeter shots against Houser. The Monarchs continued throughout the period to take it to Norfolk goalie Tyler Beskorowany but he was able to keep the game tied.
The game got chippy as the second period drew closer to a close as both teams continued battle and push hard. The second period ended with the game still knotted up at zero, the shots were 29 to 28 for the Monarchs.
Both teams came out for the third intent on finding the goal to break the tie. The Monarchs went to the power play early in the period when Joe Marciano went off for interference just over a minute into the third. Ben Betker put the Admirals down two men when he took a slashing minor a minute later. As the first power play was coming to an end, Michael Boivin scored for the Monarchs assisted by David Kolomatis and Zac Larraza.
Matt Leitner added another power play goal assisted by Yann Sauve and Maxim Kitsyn to push the lead to two. The Monarchs continued to press the Admirals, but Beskorowany didn’t break. The Admirals started to turn the tide on the Monarchs but Houser continued to be solid.
The Admirals finally got one past Houser when Tommy Mele scored assisted by Steven Whitney and Gabriel Verpaelst. As the game wore on, Houser settled back in and kept the puck out of his net the rest of the way. The Monarchs hung on for the victory by a score of 2-1 with the final shots 46-43 in favor of host Manchester.
Third star went to Leitner who had the game winning goal for the Monarchs. Second star was given to Boivin for scoring the first goal for the Monarchs. First star was awarded to Houser for being the winning goalie in the game by stopping 42 of 43 shots to secure the win.
These two teams will do it all again Saturday night at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester.
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.